More Articles

Enlarge ImageRequest to buy this photoTony Dejak | Associated PressReshad Riddle appears in Ashtabula Municipal Court. Riddle, 28, is charged with aggravated murder in the killing of his father at an Ashtabula church on Easter.

ASHTABULA, Ohio — Panicked witnesses to a fatal Easter-service shooting in Ohio feared many
might be killed as the victim’s son approached the pulpit, waving a handgun and yelling about God
and Allah.

“Tragic as it is, it could have been so much worse,” the Rev. Steve Sargent, associate pastor of
the Hiawatha Church of God in Christ in Ashtabula, said yesterday as he pointed out where the
gunman moved through the sanctuary.

Michael Wofford, 59, a worshipper who attended Sunday’s service with his wife and two
grandchildren, said he feared a shooting rampage after the gunman finished his spiel from the
pulpit area.

“Is he going to just walk out of the church or is he going to start shooting people at random?”
Wofford asked in the church vestibule. “Sooner or later, he’s going to run out of words. It could
have been much worse.”

Police say Reshad Riddle, 28, went to the church and killed his father, 53-year-old Richard
Riddle, with a single shot from a handgun Sunday afternoon.

The suspect appeared yesterday in Ashtabula Municipal Court with his ankles and wrists
shackled.

Riddle made rambling comments about God and said he wanted to be treated fairly. The judge
agreed to appoint a public defender.

The prosecutor asked for $1 million bail and, if he makes bail, a psychiatric evaluation and
24-hour monitoring.

Ann Riddle, sister of the victim and aunt of the suspect, said later that the family knew of no
possible motive.

Receiving friends at the family home, she called her brother a loving and caring family
member.

“He was a devoted family member. He was always there for the family. He cared a lot about
people,” she said. She declined to comment on other aspects of the case.

After shooting the elder Riddle, the gunman walked down the side aisle of the church and sent
panicked worshippers crawling over blue padded pews, running for the doors and climbing out windows
in adjacent rooms.

“He seemed to be like he was deranged. I don’t know if he was on something,” Sargent said while
arranging a group counseling session for traumatized church members.

“My suspicion is that he may have been on something, some mind-altering chemical that caused him
to act out like he did.”

Associate Pastor Sean Adams told
The (Ashtabula)
Star Beacon newspaper that Reshad Riddle walked through the church, still holding the gun,
and yelled that the killing was “the will of Allah. This is the will of God.”

Court records show Reshad Riddle has an extensive criminal record.

Ashtabula County Common Pleas Court records show he was arrested and charged with two counts of
felonious assault, kidnapping, abduction and tampering with evidence in 2006.

One of the felonious-assault charges stemmed from an incident in which Reshad Riddle allegedly
attempted to cut his girlfriend’s throat, records show.